Ghassan al-Sharbi
| place_of_birth = Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | date_of_arrest = 2002-03 | place_of_arrest= Faisalabad, Pakistan | arresting_authority= Joint force of Pakistani and American security officials | date_of_release = | place_of_release= | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | citizenship = | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 682 | group = | alias = | charge = War crimes charges against him have been dismissed but may be refiled. | penalty = | status = Held in extrajudicial detention | csrt_summary = | csrt_transcript= | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi is a Saudi currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 682. He graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz. with a degree in electrical engineering. The US Department of Defense reports that he was born on December 28, 1974, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He has allegedly been named the "electronic builder" and referred to as a right hand man of Abu Zubaydah by fellow Guantanamo inmates. As of October 17, 2010, Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi has been held at Guantanamo for eight years four months. War crimes charges against him have been dismissed but may be refiled.Ghassan Abdullah al Sharbi – The Guantánamo Docket – The New York Times Inconsistent naming Al Sharbi was named inconsistently on official Department of Defense documents: * His name was spelled as Ghassan Abdallah Al Sharbi in November 2005, on his official charge sheet. * His name was spelled as Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi on May 15, 2006, when the DoD released it first official list of all the captives who had been held, in military custody, in Guantanamo.list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006 Background Ghassan was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but attended high school in the United States, and went on to study electrical engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona.Saudi man admits enemy role at Guantanamo hearing, Reuters, April 27, 2006 He was captured by Pakistani forces during a raid at Faisalabad, Pakistan in March 2002. He wasn't brought to Bahrain Airbase, as prisoner #237, for interrogation until June when he was chiefly interrogated by two soldiers romantically linked to each other.Mackey, Chris. "The Interrogators", 2004 Speaking fluent English, he appeared "dismissive and aloof", and said that he was glad to see the Taliban ruling Afghanistan, quoting statistics that showed a dramatic decrease in crime rates and new schools built under their government. He asked the interrogations chief whether he had read anything by T. E. Lawrence, or From Beirut to Jerusalem, and later dismissed the interrogator's statement that he was a graduate of Fordham University by retorting that it was a "third-tier school". He offered the names, addresses and phone numbers of several American classmates, professors and landlords he said would vouch for him having done nothing wrong. The interrogator later remarked that al-Shirbi had a "seeming preoccupation with death". When it was arranged to transfer al-Shirbi to Guantanamo, he calmly told his interrogators that "after a while, the truth would blur for him and that he would just say whatever we wanted to hear just to have the solitude that would come from the end of our questioning". In testimony before the Combatant Status Review Tribunal in Guantanamo, he accepted the title "enemy combatant" as well as all 15 charges against him. Upon dismissal from the room, Ghassan chanted "May God help me fight the infidels or the unfaithful ones." On November 7, 2005, the United States charged Ghassan and four other detainees. They will face a trial before a military commission. Ghassan, Jabran Said bin al Qahtani, Binyam Ahmed Muhammad, and Sufyian Barhoumi face conspiracy to murder charges. Omar Khadr faces both murder and conspiracy to murder charges. Al-Sharbi wants to decline legal representation.Vermont lawyers represent Guantanamo detainees, Burlington Free Press, April 13, 2006 His lawyer, Bob Rachlin, is trying to arrange for Al-Sharbi to talk, by phone, with his parents, hoping they will be able to convince him to accept Rachlin's legal assistance. On April 27, 2006 al Sharbi acknowledged membership in al Qaeda, and told his military commission: * "I came here to tell you I did what I did and I'm willing to pay the price" * ''"Even if I spend hundreds of years in jail, that would be a matter of honor to me," * ''"I fought the United States, I'm going to make it short and easy for you guys: I'm proud of what I did." In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, in July 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Bush Presidency lacked the constitutional authority to set up the military commission. Only Congress had the authority to set up military commissions. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006. On May 29, 2008 Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, Sufyian Barhoumi and Jabran al-Qathani were charged before the Congressionally authorized military commissions. On 21 October 2008 Susan J. Crawford the official in charge of the Office of Military Commissions announced charges were dropped against Al Sharbi and four other captives, Jabran al Qahtani, Binyam Mohamed, Sufyian Barhoumi, and Noor Uthman Muhammed. mirror mirror Carol J. Williams, writing in the ''Los Angeles Times reports that all five men had been connected by Abu Zubaydah -- one of the three captives the CIA has acknowledged was interrogated using the controversial technique known as "waterboarding". Williams quoted the men's attorneys, who anticipated the five men would be re-charged in thirty days. They told Williams that: "... prosecutors called the move procedural", and attributed it to the resignation of fellow Prosecutor Darrel Vandeveld, who resigned on ethical grounds. Williams reported that Clive Stafford Smith speculated that the Prosecution's dropping of the charges, and plans to subsequently re-file charges later was intended to counter and disarm the testimony Vandeveld was anticipated to offer, that the Prosecution had withheld exculpatory evidence. Combatant Status Review Al Sharbi was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in tribunal hearings.OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007 A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. Al Sharbi's memo accused him of the following: Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Ghassan Abdallah Ghazi Al Shirbi's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 26-30 Al Sharbi's statement to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal During the portion of his Tribunal where he was permitted to give a statement he first indicated that he was honored to be classified as an enemy combatant. He then offered a couple of hundred words of criticism of the United States, homosexuality and Capitalism. Although he speaks fluent English he chose to give his statement in Arabic, and his translator had to ask him to pause several times, so they could catch up. He ended his statement saying: :“Your culture chose to review the enemy combatant status. Your status as enemy combatants does not need a court. For your culture, the enemy combatant is Muslims, Islam. Enemies yes, combatants no, you only wear the uniform of what you call a coalition forces what I call traitors. I do not have anything to add and I do not want to say anything more than this and I do not want to hear more than this.” When he finished his Tribunal's President told him she presumed he was finished, and tried to tell him what the next steps in the process would be. Al Sharbi started to chant at the same time. He chanted through her concluding remarks. The Tribunal reconvened, in open session, shortly after al Sharbi had been removed, so the translator's translation of his chant could be recorded in the unclassified portion of his dossier. He chanted: ''“May god help me fight the infidels or the unfaithful ones” Sleep deprivation On August 7, 2008 the ''Washington Post reported that the Guantanamo guards defied their orders to discontinue the illegal practice of arbitrarily moving captives multiples times a day to deprive them of sleep. mirror The report stated Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi was subjected to the frequent flyer program from November 2003 to February 2004. Robert Rachlin, one of his lawyers, stated: Dropped his habeas petition On March 10, 2009 US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed on Al Sharbi's behalf. Sullivan dismissed the petition, which had been initiated by Al Sharbi's father, at Al Sharbi's own request. Al Sharbi's lawyer Robert Rachlin confirmed that Al Sharbi had consistently declined all assistance, and described him as "an aspiring martyr". See also * Sleep deprivation References External links * Commissions Transcripts, Exhibits, and Allied Papers * Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Six: Captured in Pakistan (2 of 3) Andy Worthington, October 6, 2010 Category:Living people Category:1974 births Category:Saudi Arabian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:People held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp Category:Saudi Arabian al-Qaeda members Category:People from Jeddah Category:Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University alumni